The Seattle-Post Intelligencer tries to be conscientious during election season, interviewing by its count more than 100 candidates. Perhaps surreptitiously, the staff of the daily also write down the silliest comments from would-be public servants. Among the paper’s top 10: I was born into leadership – period. Give the Indians Food Stamps to buy salmon. […]
Communities
Posted inOctober 11, 2004: The First Family of Western Conservation
Heard Around the West
MONTANA For 30 years, says biologist Charles Jonkel, he’s tried to educate people about grizzlies and black bears. He started an International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Mont., 28 years ago to spread the word that ethical standards were needed for making films about the animals. Nonetheless, he says, thrill-seeking has gained ever-wider prominence, with […]
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
Illegal immigrants take jobs from Americans
I am a native-born New Mexico Hispanic. I often write letters to newspapers on a subject which those without an Hispanic last name dare not write: the urgent need for immigration reform. This nation’s immigration policy, begun in 1965, is a disaster. It hurts minorities, the poor, the environment – as we see dramatically here […]
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
The hunters and the hunted
The Arizona-Mexico borderturns into the 21st century frontier
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
New Mexico’s secret sport
Cockfighting in the land ofenchantment
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
Border lures the young
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. “I’ve been crossing the border more than 20 times. But never was it hard like it is right now.” The bearded man in the black T-shirt has the kind of intelligent face that convinces me that someday he will be a real estate mogul, […]
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
A sympathetic landowner
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. “I’m not sure why people are mad at ’em,” says Jerry Bohmfalk. “I think they’re mad at ’em because they’re poor.” Jerry Bohmfalk looks like the Marlboro Man but talks like the well-traveled corporate consultant that he became after earning his Ph.D. in integrated […]
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
Sanctuary movement revives
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Cochise County is nothing if not a place of extremes. The county’s small towns are bastions of the black-helicopter set, but the old copper-mining burg of Bisbee was taken over by artists, hippies and long-haired drug runners in the 1970s. Today, even Bisbee is […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Does the “death tax’ protect open space?
The federal estate tax affects only the wealthiest 2 percent of the U.S. population. So why should most Westerners care about the current Republican push to repeal it? One reason is that part of that wealth isn’t cash. It’s undeveloped land. And in some cases, the threat of estate taxes keeps it permanently undeveloped. Here’s […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
‘Snooty’ garages banned
In keeping with Portland’s pedestrian-friendly building codes, city council commissioners have been waging a war on oversized garages. The Portland City Council unanimously concluded that “snout houses’ – the tract homes dominated by garages thrusting toward the street – lack community spirit and make pedestrians feel less safe. “These houses don’t (just) turn their backs […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Taos Art Association
The Taos Art Association is raffling off 40 acres of piûon and juniper-studded meadows. Tickets cost $50, and the winner of the Jan. 1, 2001, drawing will have the choice of either the land, located in Lindrith, N.M., or $10,000. The event raises money to reopen the association’s community auditorium. Call 505/758-2052 or visit www.taosnet.com/taa/raffle. […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Looters beware: Tribes are fighting back
Lori Watlamet can’t hold back tears when she talks about the looting of an old Native Indian village site in the Pacific Northwest’s Columbia River Gorge. In May, with a reporter in tow, the law enforcement officer walked over a bluff that protects the site from plain view and her heart sank. Watlamet, a member […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Truth-telling needs a home in the West
Brothers is a store and a highway rest stop 43 miles east of the New West boomtown of Bend in central Oregon. It is also home to some of the most shocking roadside markers we saw in 3,600 miles of Western travel this summer. After days of reading highway signs that painted the surrounding area […]
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
New developer thinks big
UTAH An unlikely company is proposing to build what most developers can’t – a dense community in an area where large homes and large lots are the norm. Kennecott Utah Copper Corp., which has mined copper in the Salt Lake Valley for almost 100 years, plans to build 12,000 homes, apartments and condominiums and 4 […]
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
The Wilderness Awareness School
The Wilderness Awareness School, based in Duvall, Wash., teaches animal tracking, storytelling and the art of mentoring. Classes for the national program are scheduled in several locations including Washington and California, as well as Vermont and New Jersey, from Sept. 22 to Nov. 5. Write to P.O. Box 5000 #5-137, Duvall, WA 98019 (425/788-1301), or […]
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
Holy water
The Catholic Church seeks to restore the Columbia River and the church’s relevance to the natural world
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
Excerpts from the pastoral letter draft
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. We offer here a pastoral reflection, derived from Christian teachings about creation and ecology developed over the ages from their biblical origins. We speak with the voices of faith and compassion, and ask those with greater scientific and social expertise to enter into dialogue […]
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
On the path to a greener church
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. An organization with as much heft as the Catholic Church, and with 2,000 years of history, does not move quickly or simply. The Columbia River Basin pastoral letter, scheduled for release in November, has been five years in the making. But even five years […]
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
Ski town workers find homes in the hills
Squatters say camping on public land is the only affordable option
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Environmental education takes a ride
With only a bike to call his home, Mike Kahn is on a mission this summer. He wants to educate children about nature and the environment – while he pedals almost 4,000 miles from California to Maine. Kahn is the former office manager for Environmental Volunteers, a nonprofit group based in Palo Alto, Calif., and […]